The short version: planning a trip to Thailand in 2026 starts with three administrative facts, not with a list of temples. Every foreign traveller must file a Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC), and the form only opens three days before arrival. Visa-free stays for Japanese and most other passports are being cut from 60 days to 30. Cannabis is regulated again after the 2022 liberalisation. Settle those three, then decide how many nights go to Bangkok, the north and the south.

Thailand travel now begins with the TDAC

Thailand's Immigration Bureau retired the paper TM6 arrival card on 1 May 2025 and replaced it with the Thailand Digital Arrival Card, filed online before you travel. It applies to every non-Thai national arriving by air, land or sea, including infants and children, who each need their own submission.

The points the official FAQ makes explicit:

  • The form opens three days before arrival, counting the arrival date (roughly 72 hours). You cannot file it when you book
  • File it at tdac.immigration.go.th. There is no fee
  • Every entry needs its own card. A regional loop that re-enters Thailand needs one card per entry
  • Pure airside transit does not need one. If you leave the airport, you do
  • You can update your itinerary and accommodation afterwards, but name, passport number, nationality and date of birth cannot be edited - you file a fresh card instead

The practical trap is the accommodation field. Three days out, your first hotel has to be confirmed, which matters most for travellers who planned to improvise their route. Save the confirmation QR code as a screenshot so it opens with the phone in airplane mode.

Visa-free stays drop to 30 days, and what that changes

Since 15 July 2024, Japanese passport holders and dozens of other nationalities have had up to 60 days visa-free for tourism. That window is being narrowed.

As reported by JETRO, the Thai cabinet approved a revision of the visa exemption scheme on 19 May 2026 and cleared the related Interior Ministry notifications in July. Japan stays on the exempt list, but tourism entries are consolidated into a single 30-day exemption. The notifications take effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette, and as of 27 August 2026 that publication had not been confirmed, so no start date exists yet.

  1. For a normal one or two week holiday, 30 versus 60 days changes nothing. Book as planned
  2. For stays beyond a month, or a Thailand-based tour of the region, re-check shortly before departure. Fifteen days is all the notice the rule gives
  3. Check with the Royal Thai Embassy or the Tourism Authority of Thailand rather than travel blogs, which lag behind

Travellers who enter before the change takes effect and receive a 60-day stamp keep that permission for its full term. The date in your passport governs your stay, not the description of the scheme.

Building a Thailand itinerary by region

Thailand is long from north to south, and transfer time, not distance, decides what fits. Count the bases you will set up rather than the sights you will tick off.

Bangkok: works as one night or as three

The Grand Palace with Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho and Wat Arun sit along the Chao Phraya river and connect by boat in half a day. The BTS and MRT lines matter more than the map does, because traffic makes road distances meaningless. Temples require shoulders and knees covered, so pack for it rather than relying on rentals at the gate.

Chiang Mai and the north: cooler air, walkable temples

About an hour and fifteen minutes by air from Bangkok, with a dense old town you can cover on foot. The caveat is the burning season: between roughly February and April, agricultural haze pushes air quality down in some years. Travellers with respiratory conditions, and families with small children, should either shift the dates or swap the north for the south.

Phuket, Krabi and Samui: two seasons in one country

The Andaman coast - Phuket, Krabi, the Phi Phi islands - is driest from November to April. The Gulf side, Samui and Pha Ngan, runs the opposite way and takes its heaviest rain from October to December. Southern Thailand has two beach seasons half a year apart. If the dates are locked, change the coast rather than the trip.

Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi: day trips from Bangkok

Ayutthaya is about ninety minutes out by train or road, and its ruins offer very little shade, so mornings work far better than afternoons. Kanchanaburi is closer to three hours each way, which turns a day trip into mostly transport.

Local rules that affect visitors during the trip

These are the items travel features tend to skip, and the ones that actually reach you on the ground.

Cannabis has reversed course since 2022. Thailand's Ministry of Public Health reclassified cannabis buds as a controlled herb in June 2025, ending purchase, possession and use without a qualified practitioner's prescription, and narrowed the approved medical conditions in September of that year. Shopfronts still standing on the street are not evidence that anything is permitted.

Japanese residents have a second layer to consider. Since 12 December 2024 cannabis is treated as a narcotic under Japanese law and use itself is an offence; the Government of Japan's public information site states that use abroad is punishable as well.

Alcohol sales are restricted by time of day and suspended on Buddhist holidays. Smoking is banned on some beaches, and vaping devices, including heated tobacco products, are illegal to bring into the country at all - the rule visitors breach most often without knowing it.

Staying connected while travelling in Thailand

Everything above assumes a phone that is online. Showing the TDAC QR code, calling a ride, getting the message that a ferry has moved, checking whether a temple has already closed: a Thai itinerary loses its slack the moment connectivity does.

Buying a SIM at the airport means an unpredictable queue and an identity registration step. An eSIM you activate before departure connects as soon as you switch airplane mode off at the gate, which is exactly when the immigration queue asks for that QR code. Coverage inside BTS carriages and underground MRT stations varies by operator, so check tethering support too if the group shares one connection.

FAQ

When can I submit the TDAC

From three days before arrival, counting the arrival date. Earlier submissions are not accepted. Filing two days out, with your flight number and first hotel address at hand, is the practical timing.

Does the TDAC cost anything

Filing on the official site is free. Agency sites that charge a service fee appear in search results, so confirm the domain reads tdac.immigration.go.th before entering passport details.

Is the Thailand visa exemption now 30 days

As of 27 August 2026 the cabinet has approved the change and the Interior Ministry notifications await publication in the Royal Gazette, taking effect 15 days after that. If you plan to stay longer than a month, confirm the status with a Royal Thai Embassy shortly before you fly.

When is the best time to travel in Thailand

Bangkok and the north are most comfortable from November to February. The south splits: the Andaman coast is dry from November to April, while Samui on the Gulf side takes its rain from October to December. With fixed dates, pick the coast that matches them.

What is the most reliable way to get online in Thailand

You need data at the moment you land, because immigration asks for the TDAC QR code. An eSIM installed before departure starts working when you disable airplane mode, while an airport SIM counter adds a queue and a registration step of unknown length.

In Thailand, the paperwork decides the trip more than the itinerary does

There is no shortage of Thailand sightseeing content. What is missing is the step that turns the 2025 and 2026 rule changes into an actual plan. File the TDAC three days out, re-confirm the visa-free duration just before departure, leave cannabis alone - and what remains is the enjoyable question of how many nights Bangkok deserves. All of it runs on a phone that is online the moment you land, so sort that out alongside your offline maps before you go.

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